The Rev. Miller: The words and melody of love

the Rev. Victoria Miller

Updated 9:31 pm, Friday, December 28, 2012

I love the opening verses of the Letter to the Hebrews. "Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but, in these last days, he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word."

There is an echo here of the opening verses of Genesis, when God spoke the world into being. Do you remember Genesis? God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God spoke the world into being. God sustained the world by speaking in many and various ways by the prophets. And then God spoke to us by a Son in whom all of God's creative purposes were embodied and through whom all of God's redemptive purposes were fully expressed.

This is why the author of Hebrews also says of God's Son that "He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being." The Son perfectly reflects the father and perfectly fulfills the father's purposes toward all of creation.

The opening verses of the Gospel of John capture this idea, too. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and, without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people."

The mind-boggling thing about Christmas is that we celebrate the birth of a very human child, Jesus of Nazareth -- a very human child in whom God's purposes for all of creation were given life. We celebrate the birth of a very human child whose flesh and blood existence would give full expression to the love that IS God. God's love is more a verb than it is a noun. The love that IS God creates life. The love that IS God nurtures and sustains life. The love that IS God redeems life: It makes what is broken and full of pain whole and full of joy.

The scandal is that God speaks this love to us, God gives himself to us, as intimately and directly as he can, through the life of a man who lived and died just as we do. This is why we say of God's Son that he was both born of a woman and of one being with the Father. The language God uses to speak to us is the language of life -- not more, not less. And God's speech to us is intimate speech, the way a lover speaks to his beloved. It is all about a relationship that begins and ends in love.

When God spoke to us by his Son, God was singing us a love song. And God's love song has words that embrace us and a melody that gets under our skin. It is a song that moves our lives center stage in the drama of God's relationship with all creation. And it is a song that moves us outward in love to care for God's other creatures.

This Christmas season, know that God loves you -- and loves you intimately. Know that God speaks to you, to all of his creatures, through his Son in love and for love.